Mastery, Mystery and Myths about Lightning

Science investigates the Known, the Unknown, and Unknowable.
Today, lightning research is divided into various disciplines, some of
which are:

Atmospheric Physics and Electrostatics

Electrical Engineering

Climatology, including thunderstorm morphology & dynamics

Meteorology and other sub-sectors

These detailed technical examinations may never provide all the answers
about lightning, but modern investigation techniques are busy providing
new information.

There was another earlier time when lightning was the magic fire from
the sky which man captured and used to keep warm at night. It kept the
savage animals away. As primitive man sought answers about the natural
world, lightning became a part of his superstitions, his myths and his
early religions.

Early Greeks believed that lightning was a weapon
of Zeus. Thunderbolts were invented by Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
Since lightning was a manifestation of the gods, any spot struck by
lightning was regarded as sacred. Greek and Roman temples often were
erected at these sites, where the gods were worshipped in an attempt
to appease them.

The Moslems also attributed
lightning and thunder to their god. The Koran says, "He it is who
showeth you lightning and launches the thunderbolts."

Scandinavian mythology alludes to Thor, the thunderer,
who was the foe of all demons. Thor tossed lightning bolts at his enemies.
Thor also gave us Thurs-day.

In the pantheistic Hindu religion, Indra was
the god of heaven, lightning, rain, storms and thunder. The Maruts used
the thunderbolts as weapons.

Umpundulo is the lightning bird-god of the Bantu
tribesmen in Africa. Even today their medicine men go out in storms
and bid the lightning to strike far away.

The Navajo Indians hold that lightning has great
power in their healing rituals. Sand paintings show the lightning bolt
as a wink in the Thunderbird's eye. Lightning is associated with wind,
rain and crop growth.

As late as the early 1800s in Russia, when rain
was wanted, three men climbed a tree. One would knock two firebrands
together; the sparks imitating lightning. Another one would pour water
over twigs, imitating rain. A third would bang on a kettle to attract
the thunder. And throughout early Europe, church bell ringers would
make as much noise as possible, hoping to scare away the storms from
these holy dwellings which were struck frequently by lightning.

Even Santa Klaus gets into the act with his reindeer
Donner (thunder) and Blitzen (lightning).

Early superstitions were observed as Cause and Effect, which now has
been fancified as science. Socrates said, "that's not Zeus up there,
it's a vortex of air." Ghengis Kahn forbade his subjects from washing
garments or bathing in running water during a storm. Thales, the Greek
philosopher, in 600 BC, rubbed a piece of amber with a dry cloth and noted
that it would then attract feathers and straw. William Gilbert, court
healer to Queen Elizabeth, in the late 1500s, also used amber to duplicate
the earlier experiments. He named this via electrica, after electra which
is Greek for amber. He didn't know it, but he was demonstrating static
electricity.

Lightning is a big spark...static electricity on a giant scale. Machines
for creating static electricity were invented...the Leyden jar was like
a thermos bottle which stored volts. Friction machines could charge the
jars and electricity could be carried around and demonstrated. "Electric
magic" was in great demand at the royal courts of Europe as entertainment.
The parlor tricks amused and fascinated people.

Science was in its infancy during these times. Sir Isaac Newton had proposed
that basic mathematical laws were the foundation for understanding the
forces of nature. With "electric magic" there was insufficient
experimental investigation to explain its behavior. In 1746, Dr. Spence
from Scotland came to Philadelphia. He there demonstrated some "electric
magic" to an audience which included the local postmaster.

That man was Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was curiosity personified. At
age eight he left the Boston Grammar School, ending his formal studies.
He was endowed with a strong sense of investigation and self-discipline.
He learned and studied things all his life. He invented the bifocal glasses
and the Franklin stove. An expert swimmer, a vegetarian, multi-lingual,
and a word-smith publisher, his Poor Richard's Almanac was selling 10,000
copies a year in the colonies. Even today some of those aphorisms about
thrift and hard work are valuable to recall:

Honesty is the best policy.

He who drinketh fast, payeth slow.

Sloth maketh all things difficult, but Industry all easy.

At age 42, Franklin sold his Philadelphia printing business for half
the profits for 20 years. He retired. He involved himself in social experiments
like the American Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence.
He dabbled with the electric Leyden Jar and pondered questions... "how
many small jars would kill a chicken? How many large jars for a turkey?
Why did an electrocuted turkey taste better than a conventionally-killed
bird? What is lightning? Why is it burning down churches? Can it be captured
to a Leyden jar? Can it be captured to earth safely?..." Then came
the kites and keys experiments in 1752-53 and Franklin's deduction that
lightning was, afterall, electricity.

This was followed by his lightning rod invention and its duplication
in France and usefulness throughout Europe. Franklin was a celebrated
figure in his time. Franklin has been called America's patron saint of
common sense. Perhaps, had he not been close to the French Royal Court,
and been able to influence France to finance the American Revolutionary
War, all of us here in the USA today might be speaking with English accents!

Recently some scientists have concluded that lightning may have played
a part in the evolution of living organisms. Nobel prize winning chemist
Harold Urey proposed that the earth's early atmosphere consisted of ammonia,
hydrogen, methane, and water vapor. One of his students, Stanley Miller,
used an electric spark to duplicate lightning and introduced it into the
chemical brew. He was careful to excluded any living organisms from the
experiment. At the end of a week, he examined the mixture and found it
contained newly-formed amino acids, the very building blocks of protein.
Did lightning play a role in creating life itself? Science now is pushing
the envelope of lightning's secrets. More has been learned about this
transient phenomenon in the past 3-4 years than in the preceding two hundred
forty four years since Franklin's "kites and keys" experiments.
Stay tuned...